Health Goals 2012

Since it’s the first week of 2012, I figured that I’d share my goals for 2012 with all of you. I don’t list every goal in every category, but I do put the ones that I feel relate to the things we talk about on the blog.

Every year for the past 6 years, I’ve created goals for myself. I wasnt too good with the tracking thing in the early years, but I’ve gotten better recently. (also, while editing my goals posts, I wrote I’d been having goals for different amounts of time in every post i’d written). I decided to break up my goals into categories last year, and I’m doing the same this year. The following are my goals for getting/staying healthy throughout the year.

This year of course comes with a little added incentive because I’m getting married. While I dont mind looking like a tool at my wedding, I dont want to be overweight or unfit – in fact, just the oppisite. I’d rather be in the best shape of my life, or close to it anyway. Hopefully the goals I’ll set will help with that.

The first health goal for the year will be to run a marathon. I don’t really think this will be that difficult. Im a very function oriented person (if X, then Y) so my plan is to pick a marathon that I’d like to do before the wedding and then follow a simple training program. I’ve already found a training program that i’d like to do, and have identified a few marathons that I’d like to do (both are in june, providing me 6 full weeks to get really fat before my wedding). I think that H may run it with me, but she’s only interested in running a half marathon, so her training wont be quite as extensive as mine, but at least I’ll have a training buddy. As far as I’m concerned though, I just have to follow the steps on my training program week in and week out, and I’ll be fine. That may be simplistic thinking, but I dont need to get all worked up over it. As of right now, I’m looking at 2 races, both in the beginning of june pretty hard, and one potentially in may, but it is a trail run so I’m not sure that I’m quite up for that yet.

The next health goal is slightly subjective (which makes for a poor goal) but I’m going for it anyway. H and I will be spending plenty of time lounging around on the beach during our honeymoon, and obviously I dont want to look like a troll. Unfortunately, there’s no way I’ll look as good as she will, but either way I’d like to be in good shape for my honeymoon. How I’ll define this I havent figured out yet, but hopefully I’ll come up with something.

I’d also like to eat more veggies. Next summer, H and I are going to be getting veggies in our CSA along with our friut, and I’d like to make sure that none of that ends up in the compost heap. In order to do this, I’ll need to eat more veggies next year, both as snacks and sides, as well as main dishes. So, one of my goals for next year will be to eat vegetarian at dinner 3 times per week.

I think that those goals should keep me occupied in the health sector for a while, and nothing looks like it will be too difficult (other than following the plan). One thing I was told to watch out for is my marathon – It seems like there are quite a bit of injuries during training for a race, so I’ll need to watch out for that.

Readers: What are your health goals for the coming year? Do you have health goals, or are you simply trying to maintain what you’ve got? Are you goals focused on weight-loss or something different?

Good luck! I like your goals. My health goal is to get back to the gym 4-5 times/week. They just finished the remodel and it is awesome. There are a bunch of cardio machines now and the whole environment is much nicer. This goal is pretty easy for me. The back up goal is to find a way to be physically active if I don’t have access to a gym.

My goal is to exercise at least 30 minutes a day by walking/hooping. I would love to see some of your vegetarian dinner recipes. Eating more veggies is great..if I can only figure out how to make them taste better when cooking.

That’s a great goal – Im going to be honest and say I havent done that at all. I still eat a burger once in a while and have bison, but i’ve significantly cut back. I also eat game (elk, antelope) which is red, but of a different variety. My fiancee doesnt eat red meat (or any meat) and really likes it.

Good luck with your training for a marathon. I am always so impressed with someone who can run one. I like to run, but a marathon just seems so intimidating. Part of my goal is to run more, specifically 5 miles a week, I would actually like to get to the point where I am running 3 or 4 5ks a week.

I love your vegetarian goal for 3 nights a week. We just started doing a 4-5 vegetarian nights a week a few months ago. It’s definitely great for the wallet and our health.

Thanks – Hopefully it shouldnt be too bad, but i guess i’ll just have to wait and find out. I wouldnt call myself a person that “can run a marathon”. THe most ive ever raced is 5k, so this will be a pretty big step for me. hopefully the vegetarian goal will go over well – though honestly sometimes I feel hungry when I go vegetarian, but who knows….maybe that will go away, or I just need to eat more…

A marathon is a huge goal. I have a family history of bad knees, which presented themselves as a potential problem when I took up treadmill running a few years back, so I’ve transitioned to using an exercise bike and walking. My biggest goals are to eat better, snack less, and exercise consistently (I can usually do 2-3 months at a time of any of those, but it would be nice to sustain those longer term).

It is a huge goal beagle – so i’ll probably really need to focus on it (and not feeling very focused these last 2 weeks, but that could be because of all the travel. That sucks about your knees – i’ve been told to watch out for knee injuries while training for a marathon….

These sound like awesome goals. I ran my first marathon a few years ago. It was quite the experience training for it and completing it. I actually did it in Greece with my running buddy. It is something I will never forget.

Glad to hear you are going to eat more vegetarian meals too. Not only is this healthy for you but it is greener too. Plus you are supporting a local farmer. Being a vegetarian myself I always smile with joy when I read stuff like this.

Thanks miss t – im really hopeful that i’ll be able to keep focused on these goals and always remember to do what I wanted to do on jan 1. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about food lately, and hopefully will have some vegetarian recipes to share soon.